The government is said to be considering halting tourism to North Korea's Mount Geumgang resort for a long period of time until no stones are left unturned in the investigation into the recent shooting death of a South Korean tourist.

As the North earned about 20 million dollars in cash from the inter-Korean tourism program last year, a prolonged halt would put significant pressure on the impoverished communist country to cooperate in a proposed joint probe into the shooting incident.

In addition, Seoul plans to put off the provision of supplies to the resort, and materials and equipment for communications.

However, the government is supposedly not considering stopping importation of North Korean sand.